Students find silver lining after being left out of vice presidential debate

The only students invited to last week's vice presidential debate are finding a silver lining after being left out in the cold after the event's popularity unexpectedly grew.

Twenty students from Soulsville Charter School made the eight-hour bus ride from Tennessee to Kentucky only to have their seats given away to politicians and members of the press, MyFoxMemphis.com reports.

Students said they were shown the debate room and caught a glimpse of Vice President Biden walking into the arena, but then returned to their hotel to watch the debate on television like the rest of the nation.

"I can't say that I was disappointed because it's something that most people in Memphis don't even get close to and we were so close to it," Adrian Williams, a senior at Soulsville told MyFoxMemphis.com.

The students had a prepared question that they were supposed to ask the candidates, but instead was fielded by Kentucky representatives at a town hall meeting. On a nationally televised meeting, the students asked representatives how the president would be able to help more middle-class citizens pay for their child's college education.

Though these students will not be old enough to vote in this year's election, they say the experience was important to them.

"Memphis is really democratic, very liberal so sometimes I'm surrounded in liberal things," Koesha Stewart, a senior at Soulsville told MyFoxMemphis.com. "But to go there I got to see two different viewpoints and it was actually enriching."